One particularly disgruntled Counterstrike player tired of the incessant gambling of virtual items in-game has sued the company for letting the racket go unhindered, though it may also have something to do with a large bet he recently lost…

Ever since the inception of the highly popular Counterstrike: Global Offensive, there has by all accounts been a steady rise in the illegal gambling of the game’s virtual items without any sign of Valve even attempting to stop it – with one third-party site even utilizing Steam sign-ins to make its transactions.

According to Bloomberg – who did a study on the topic – most illegal gambling sites care little for the age of their users, permitting underage gambling and breaking the law in the process, and they also estimated the virtual gambling scene raked in more than $2.3 billion in 2015 alone.

A quote from plaintiff:

“Defendant Valve knowingly allowed, supported, and/or sponsored illegal gambling by allowing millions of Americans to link their individual Steam accounts to third- party websites such as CSGO Lounge (“Lounge”), CSGO Diamonds (“Diamonds”), and OPSkins (collectively, “unnamed co-conspirators”)… In the eSports gambling economy, skins are like casino chips that have monetary value outside the game itself because of the ability to convert them directly into cash.”

He also claimed that he “has gambled on the game and lost money as both an adult and a minor”, certainly making for a rather ironic case, while also causing some to question his age.

The consequences of Valve’s “lack of action” are suggested to be dire, though this may hinge on whether Valve themselves can be held legally accountable for the illegal gambling of disparate third parties.

However, those still believing in the forlorn concept of personal responsibility may well choose to understand the case in terms of yet another litigation crazy American attempting to make a buck whilst absolving himself of any responsibility for his gambling antics.

Kind of reminds me of my 2nd cousin that use to play gaiaonline some years back. He must have spent at least $150USD on that website and some moderator or administrative staffer accused him of botting and perma-banned him. Practically stole what he had bought on that website. Oh, he got his parents involved, threaten to sue the website for fraud and deception. In the end, he never played pay-to-play online games ever again.

@Anonymous 15:58 27/06/2016
He never did bot. I mean, why bot an online game and pay with real money. Awfully risky to spend real money when you can hack/bot the online game for undetermined amount of whatever the game’s pixels are worth. Aye?

?? It is one of the biggest Esports game with teams from all over the world. I don’t follow CS but you can always see it in the top 5 featured on Twitch. The huge tournaments draw in 100K plus viewers easily.

From what I’ve seen the game has turn to shit with mass amounts of hackers.

And how the fuck can he even sue Valve for something that happens on a third-party website. Just sue the website itself… But wait, he’s a greedy asshole so he wants to sue Valve just because Valve has more money.

Because 3rd party site uses Valve’s ID system. So it stands to cause and reason it has Valve’s approval, even if they are not directly involved in the act they support it and profit from it. It’s called vicarious responsability, normally only used for credits, mortages, etc but also applicable to other crimes. I would explain more, but I don’t know how it exacly works in the US laws…

So wait, in your opinion, if one dislikes something. It’s better to not give feedback and instead just silently go away?
Must suck from developers point of view when players start leaving games and no one gives feedback as to why \o/

Lmao if you came to this site for Japanese culture of any sort then you came to the wrong place. The only culture you will find here is of either the salty or toxic variety with a dash of anime/manga and a side of porn.